Text: “That’s it, enough, I’ll arrest all sexy priest trope apologists I’m tired of seeing stories with sexy priests”.

YES. BUT.
Sometimes you’re like “oh no, this story’s got everything for me to dislike, this is absolutely not my jam, I know I don’t like these tropes” and you still sorta want to see where it is going? Sometimes because you trust the author, often because you trust the promise, sometimes for some undefined mysterious subconscious reason…

Well, I don’t like the sexy priest trope, and The Devil’s Favourites is NOT about that!!!!

The Devil’s Favourites, by Herzspalter, on a first glance, may fool you for another story about idealistic young men who may be secretly a little too friendly with each other, locked in their little environments and living their little lives… I mean, another fertile ground for a story that involves Catholicism but is ONLY about exorcisms! The art is simple and the story starts with a very cosy vibe, and I wouldn’t judge you for thinking it was going to be another sexy priest BL webcomic.
This is, until it does a 180º flip and becomes HORRIBLY GREAT.
Ilario is a young Vatican exorcist who just doesn’t… Quite believe in the supernatural, or at least not the way he’s being taught. Sure, his job is to exorcise demons and all, but everyone keeps saying they feel their malignant presence, the Forces of Pure Evil, so and so… But Ilario? He just doesn’t feel it. He doesn’t feel the presence of Evil and he even ends up asking himself if exorcisms are a good thing at all. And this distresses him, as he feels different from everyone around him. His friend and confidant Lionel, on the other hand, seems to be the perfect example of someone full of virtue and wonder and lust for life, and a much better fit to the role of exorcist.

But when Lionel gets in a… Predicament… And Ilario needs to come to rescue and use his exorcism powers!! His time to shine!! EXCEPT OH NO IT’S NOT WORKING AND SOMETIMES THE ONLY WAY TO GET THE DEMON OUT IS BY LITERALLY BREAKING A CHAIR ON ITS BACK.

And look here. I love this, ok. It goes from jolly and happy to horribly wrong in 2 seconds flat and gets me seeing PHYSICAL VIOLENCE as a very human alternative to danger and fear. I mean. Would you fight a demon? With a chair?

The Devil’s Favourites counts with two chapters right now, and I feel like those are more than enough at the moment to leave you with a good impression of what might be there to come. It sure left me wondering. The character designs are on fleek and the art serves the action and emotion pretty well.

I highly recommend reading it on its website at The Devil’s Favourites, although it is also available (censoredly) on Webtoons. I’ll tell you right now it’s got a lot of gore after a very cutesy start, so watch out for that.